The trial of the highest-ranking officer involved in the death of Freddie Gray will go forward Thursday, after the judge denied motions to dismiss the charges due to “defects in the institution of prosecution”.
Lt Brian Rice, who led the foot chase of Gray on 12 April 2015, is charged with manslaughter and lesser charges relating to the detention, arrest and ultimate death of the 25-year-old black man from injuries sustained in police custody. Rice opted to forgo his right to a jury trial and have his case decided by Judge Barry Williams, who has already acquitted two other officers over their alleged role in Gray’s death. The two acquittals, which followed a hung jury in the case of the officer William Porter in December, prompted speculation that the top prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, would drop the charges against the remaining officers.
“If you look at how the state’s attorney has responded throughout all these cases, at every turn I think she has gone aggressively to pursue a conviction,” said the University of Maryland law professor David Jaros. “We are having a very public thrashing out of the issues in this case so no one will step back and say this was swept under the rug. But I do think there was a very steep hill to climb and I do think there was a moment where the state’s attorney could have stepped back and assessed her evidence and decided whether or not she believes she had a case she could prove in court and convince the judge beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The defense filed motions to dismiss the indictment and to make public the records of the grand jury after a police detective alleged that the state’s attorney’s office had provided her with an inaccurate written statement to read and did not allow her to respond to questions from the grand jury.
Williams denied both motions. But he did rule on Tuesday that the prosecution had violated discovery rules by providing the defense with 4,000 pages of documents just days before the trial started. He said neither side could use the documents.
